Blondie
by xXaurora-borealisXx
Summary: Roxas had always been Sora's twin brother. Identical twin brother. Maybe he just needed a change...  Akuroku


**Blondie**

_Author's note: Short break from my FictionPress writing to put down on paper a fanfiction that has been nagging in the back on my mind for quite some time now. It's a bit too late for Akuroku day, I know but still... this is my first Kingdom Hearts fiction and I hope you'll have as much fun __reading it as I had creating it! I just hope I didn't make the characters too out-of-character. Axel might seem more caring then in other stories, but I felt it was better this way for the kind of story I was going for._

_Warning: Shounen-Ai (Well dah! It's Akuroku!) _

_NB: Sora and Roxas are identical twins in this fic; they have slight differences like the colour of their eyes, as well as their slightly different skin tones, but other than that, they look exactly alike._

XxXxX

"Cheese!"

There was a flash of light and a distinctive click sound.

"Kawai, you two guys look so cute!" the girl squealed as she was looking down the tiny screen of her digital camera.

A brunet boy came behind her and tried to catch a glimpse of the picture too.

"Really? Let me see, Kairi!"

The redhead handed the camera to her friend and turned her head to face the other subject of the picture. "You wanna see it too, Roxas?"

The other boy shrugged, but still kept a shy smile on his lips. "It can wait. I just want to get to class before the bell rings."

"But we still have 10 minutes 'til next class, Rox..." Sora whined. "I just thought that helping Kairi with her photo project would be nice, don't you think?"

Roxas sighed and ran a hand through his spike hair. "Yes, but I told Axel I would meet him in front of the room to hand him some notes from our last math class."

"It's okay, Roxas. I'll send you the photo by email tonight" Kairi replied.

Roxas waved his twin brother and the girl good bye before heading down the corridor. He thought for a moment he would have to wait for his best friend to show up, but this one was already waiting for him next to the door. It was really hard to miss Axel in a crowd with his bright red spiked hair that could easily be mistaken for a fiery dead porcupine on his head. Roxas had even nicknamed Axel Knuckles one day while they were both sharing a vintage video gaming day, and had decided on playing Sonic the Hedgehog. Axel had found the comparison insulting, saying that his hair was way more carefully sculpted than Knuckles', but Roxas really couldn't see that much of a difference. They had argued on that topic for a while until Roxas just switched the game to another one where none of the characters had red hair, therefore making Axel forget the reason why they were arguing in the first place.

As he approached the redhead, Roxas noticed that this one was drumming his fingers on his binder to a beat only he could hear through his humongous headphones. Roxas smiled to himself, knowing how much his best friend hated to wait and stay still. When he surveyed the corridor to get a glimpse of his friend, Axel finally saw Roxas coming his way and took off his headphones.

"Hey kiddo!"

Roxas sighed. Axel had a list of nicknames for him, from insulting ones like jerk-face (mostly when Roxas was beating him in any video game) to annoying ones like kiddo and short-stuff. Oh, and let's not forget the sexually related ones like hot-ass or kinky bean (he couldn't even begin to imagine how Axel had come up with this one...). Why they were friends, Roxas sometimes wondered... They had met when Axel was 13 and Roxas had barely reached 12. It had been a weird first meeting. Somehow, they had both found themselves at the same Christmas party, being friends of a common family. Axel had come up to Roxas, holding a small piece of paper.

"Here. My cousin wanted to give this to you" he said while handing the paper to Roxas, looking very annoyed at the situation.

Roxas took it without saying a word and read it. He blushed and handed the paper back.

"I think you're mistaken" is all he said before trying to run away.

"Wait up, twerp!" the redhead had replied, grabbing his arm. "You can't just throw a love confession like that. Knowing my bratty cousin, she'll come looking for you and insistently nag you until you give her an answer!"

Roxas struggled to loosen the grip on his arm. "But I'm not Sora."

Axel looked puzzled for a moment. "She distinctively pointed you in the crowd. How can you not be Sora then?"

The other boy blushed even harder in embarrassment while freeing his arm. He looked through the crowd and when he spotted who he was looking for, he pointed the person to the taller boy. "That's Sora, he's my twin brother."

Axel stared at the other brunet boy then at the one right in front of him. "It's like I'm seeing double."

"I know, we get that a lot. Identical twins" Roxas mentioned before becoming defensive. "On the outside, but not on the inside mind you!"

Axel had laughed at the comment and left to hand the love note to Sora. Eventually during the evening, they had ended up talking to each other and exchanging phone numbers. They then started as gaming partners (Sora had always sucked at video games, so Roxas was happy to find someone that could actually be a challenge for him). When Roxas had entered junior high school the next year, Axel had been there to show him the best places to sit in class and who to avoid. He had even defended him against bullies a couple of times. In exchange, Roxas had helped him with his school work, especially math since Axel had flunked his first year in math. They only had that one class together, and somehow, Axel had always made sure they would be in the same group. By then, Axel had also claimed to the entire school population that Roxas was his and his only, which led to a very well-remembered argument between the two of them. Eventually, Axel explained that he had only meant it as a joke, not in any other relational way and Roxas had forgiven him. Or so Axel thought.

Which brings us back to now.

"Hello Axel" Roxas replied.

"It took you like, forever, to get here! What had your sexy ass delayed?" Axel whined.

"The bell just rang 5 minutes ago and I had to get some stuff from my locker before meeting you" the other boy explained before handing the redhead a thick notepad. "Don't damage them or..."

"... else you'll tear my head off, I know. Will you ever trust me with your math notes, Roxas?"

"Not since you spilled some grape juice on them."

"But that was 2 years ago, Roxie!"

Roxas waved the comment off. "Well, it's still fresh in my memory. Now get to class before you're late!"

"Yes sir!" Axel saluted him before heading off. However, after a few steps he quickly spun around and called out to him. "Hey Roxie, what are you doing this weekend?"

"I'm working the Saturday night shift and then I don't know. Why'd you ask?" the boy answered.

Axel came back towards him and stared at him, astonished.

"It's your birthday, dummy! I thought you'd want to do something about it!" he exclaimed.

His friend sighed before looking down. "Right. Well, I'll probably be having the traditional birthday dinner with Sora, mom and dad on Sunday evening then. You know I have this dinner every time, right? I wonder where we'll end up this year..."

"What about me?" Axel whined. "When do you find time for your amazing best friend on your birthday?"

Roxas looked up, hiding his anxiety behind a smile. "We don't have to do anything special for my birthday, you know. It's only another day in the year."

The first bell rang, cutting short their conversation. Axel didn't have time to reply before being shooed away to class by Roxas. As this last one entered his classroom, he was called up by the teacher.

"Roxas, I just wanted you to congratulate your brother on his winning this weekend for me. It was quite a match and your brother is quite a player!"

Roxas smiled before replying he would relay the message to his brother. This was the fifth time today he was asked to do this, and they were only in second period. As he sat down at his place, things started adding up in his mind and he found out that he couldn't really focus on French grammar at the moment. He barely took any notes while wondering why that last comment by his teacher was bugging him so much.

XxXxX

"Earth to Roxas! Are you listening? Did Axel try to molest you again this morning?"

The comment brought him back to reality as his friend Namine looked at him, grinning.

"You haven't even touched your meal. You feeling okay?" the blonde girl asked.

Roxas shook his head and smiled.

"Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind, that's all."

Namine smiled back. "You know you can talk to me about it, right?"

He raised his gaze to meet hers. "But there's nothing wrong, Nami. I might just be tired for all I know myself."

She started to peel her orange and replied: "Even Axel seemed worried this morning. He said you didn't want to do anything for your birthday..."

"I didn't- Axel only understands what he wants in a sentence sometimes. Most of the time even. I didn't say I didn't want to do anything for my birthday; I'm working on Saturday, and Sunday is traditional birthday celebration as every single year for the past 13 years." Roxas explained while picking grains of rice with his fork without eating them.

"You'll be turning sixteen in 2 days Roxas! You didn't even ask the day off on the weekend of your birthday, and you won't be doing something special about your sweet 16... Maybe Axel had thought of some way to celebrate it with you since he's your best friend, no?"

Roxas hadn't really thought about asking Axel that question. True, his best friend might have wanted to spend his birthday with him, but the only thing on Roxas' mind was the fact that his birthday did not sound like an exciting event this year, unlike other years.

"You should ask him. Who's know what special thing he had planned... even though planning and Axel are two concepts that do not fit together in context."

This had Roxas smiling. Maybe Namine was right; spending the day with Axel might cheer him up. But cheer him up from what? He had been feeling weird recently and hadn't been able to put his finger on the problem. He pushed his thoughts into the back of his mind to focus on planning his next assignment with Namine for their history lesson.

XxXxX

The rest of the day went speeding by as most Friday always did. At the end of the day, Axel was faithfully waiting for him by his locker, headphones around his neck.

"So..." he started.

"So what?" replied Roxas.

"Well, I was thinking that we could do something tonight if you want since the sexy beast that you are doesn't have to wake up early tomorrow morning." Axel suggested.

The other guy opened up his locker and took out the books he needed for his weekend homework. He thought about his friend's proposition for a moment. His brother would surely be home this evening with his best Riku, watching countless episodes of _Lost_, their newest obsession. Somehow, the idea of spending tonight listening to their rambling about what was real and what wasn't, and who was guilty this time, didn't sound like a fun way to pass the time.

"Okay. What did you have in mind?" the smaller one replied.

"It's your birthday, let's go out! Do you have to pass by your place to change first?"

"Sora!" someone yelled down the hall.

Roxas instinctively turned around and saw someone coming towards them. "Wrong person" Roxas said.

His interlocutor slowed down and scratched the back of his head. Roxas recognized him from Sora's soccer team. "Sorry, you two guys look so much alike. Could you just pass a message to him for me?"

Roxas smiled politely and answered the affirmative. Tidus gave him a few directions to his place where the soccer team would be celebrating Sora's birthday the next evening. The small teen noted down the information in his agenda and told him Sora would be informed quickly. Tidus left running back the way he came.

"So, back to your place or no?" Axel asked again.

Roxas shook his head. "No, I'll borrow something from you if you don't mind."

"Not a problem at all. After all, you know you look sexier in my clothes than in mine, proving therefore that I have wonderful taste in clothing!" Axe grinned widely.

"Yes Axel, and sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve such a godlike sex-obsessed best friend" Roxas replied while sighing.

Axel fanned himself. "Please, you didn't have to do much. You should know that I can spot people deserving my attention from miles away, Roxie."

Roxas grinned at his turn.

"Wanna eat out and catch a movie?" Axel asked.

"Sounds good!" the birthday boy smiled, chasing away a nagging feeling in the back of his mind.

Tidus had never once pronounced his name in their short encounter.

XxXxX

Roxas had texted the information given to him by Tidus to his brother on the way to Axel's place. There, both boys had changed from their uniforms to more casual clothing. Axel lent a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a hooded vest to Roxas; of course, all of that looked big on Roxas but he had never heard him complain once about it, except the first time when he had to borrow clothes from the redhead. It seems he had gotten use to the largeness of his best friend's hoodies, because he often borrowed one from him when he got cold and they were at his place.

When they showed up to their favourite Thai food joint, Roxas was surprised to see Namine sitting in a booth, with Kairi, Sora, Riku and other friends of Axel, Demyx and Zexion. Axel smiled down at him.

"I'm pretty glad you accepted the invitation or else they would have all been waiting for a while for us, don't you think?"

Roxas didn't know what annoyed him more at that time; the fact that he hated surprises, or the fact he had been trying to avoid spending an evening celebrating his birthday. Nevertheless, he smiled like nothing was bothering him and sat down next to Namine, while Axel took a seat in front of him. They all ordered and were debating about which movie was better worth seeing that night. As usual, Roxas stayed quiet most of the time; he wasn't one to make conversations in group as he preferred one on one talk. His eyes fell on the t-shirt his brother was wearing at the moment; it seemed so familiar that he almost thought it was one of his, but he noticed the punch stain that had damaged his twin's shirt two weeks ago. Their orders arrived at this moment, and the waiter got his and Sora's order mixed up and they had to switch plates. For a moment, he felt kind of dizzy and excused himself from the table.

He closed the bathroom door behind him and took a deep breath before his eyes met the small mirror on the wall right in front of him. He came closer and stared at his reflection. A brown haired boy looked back at him, his bright blue eyes filled with doubt and confusion. Why did he suddenly feel like he couldn't spend one more minute in this place?

_Get a hold of yourself, Roxas. Just think of this as a friendly gathering. After all, they're all celebrating your birthday, right?_

_And Sora's too._

He splashed some water in his face before going back to the table, smiling like nothing was wrong. Sora was telling them a story about Roxas and his early birthdays when they had started the traditional dinner thing they would be having on Sunday once again. Roxas ate his food in silence, but managed to laugh at appropriate moments.

However, he couldn't fool Axel who kept sending worried glances his way, but he avoided them every time.

XxXxX

The movie was good and Roxas found out that he was actually enjoying himself at the moment. They had chosen a movie he had wanted to see for a long time, even if Demyx and Riku had whined. Sora had defended his brother's taste in movies and sided by him, as a birthday requirement. Roxas had felt good at that moment and had been able to put aside the weird feeling that had been eating him up at the restaurant. Axel kept whispering funny comments in his ear every now and then during the movie, and he had trouble not laughing out loud at moments. He hushed him a couple of times, and eventually noticed that the comments stopped; Axel was too caught up in the movie, which surprised Roxas because this was not his best friend's type of movie at all. After all, Axel was never big on anything romantic, so why would he enjoy a fantasy movie with an obvious love story?

When they left the theatre, Sora headed straight home with Riku, but Roxas decided on spending a bit more time with Axel at his place. He wanted to finish that level in their newest video game acquisition and the walk between their two homes was only three blocks away.

"You know, I find it hard to believe that you actually liked that movie" Roxas mentioned while they drove towards Axel's house.

"What's there not to like about it? I mean, the character's powers were amazing and I just wished someone would come and tell me that I'm a sorcerer one day too!"

The brunet laughed. "True. I thought you'd grow bored of the love story."

Axel rolled his eyes. "I would have grown bored if it was too lovely, of course. But I'm not the heartless bastard you make me sound like; I can actually enjoy romantic relationships in movies, as long as the whole movie is not based on one. And besides, the girl was blond so therefore the love story couldn't be that bad!"

"Fine, fine! I'll agree to change my definition of you from heartless bastard to not-so-heartless bastard who fantasizes about blonds. Are you okay with that one?"

"Sure" Axel grinned.

It was only a few minutes later, when Axel missed two stops signs in a row that Roxas noticed something was wrong. Sure Axel liked to speed up once in a while, but he would be careful about these types of things ever since he had gotten caught by cops a year ago.

"Stop the car" Roxas said.

"What?" Axel didn't even spare a glance at him.

"I said, stop the car, Axel" he repeated.

Axel suddenly braked and took a deep breath in. His hands crisped on the wheel and he let go of it, turning to face Roxas, a nervous smile plastered on his face.

"What's wrong, Roxie?"

The other boy blinked a few times before answering: "Hum, I could ask you the same thing. I am actually asking you the same thing right now, and please do not take me for an idiot and say nothing, because God, that would be lying to me in my freaking face and you know how much I hate it."

Axel kept looking at Roxas for a moment and the smile faltered. He turned his gaze away from his best friend. "Rox, did I do something to upset you?"

That took the brunet by surprise. "What the hell, Axel? We have been spending most of our free time together since the past few weeks and you ask me if I'm mad at you? If I were, I wouldn't be talking to you, idiot!"

"Then will you tell me why the fuck you've been acting all emo for the past few days? And at the restaurant tonight when you were completely ignoring me at times?" Axel replied, now facing Roxas.

The younger teen felt the other's gaze trying to pierce through him, but somehow, he couldn't find the will to answer his friend's question. Roxas lowered his gaze. He realised that he couldn't face his best friend with his inside issue, but he couldn't put his finger on the reason why it seemed like such a big deal. He then felt Axel's finger cup up his chin and force his gaze back up.

"You're making me worry here, pal..."

Roxas swallowed the lump in his throat and found the will to smile at his friend. "Can we just skip this whole conversation and spend the evening beating each other's ass like we said we would?"

His friend sighed and let go of the brunet's face. "Alright" he replied as he turned the key in the ignition to start the car again. "Sometimes, I wish you were easier to read" he said as a joke trying to lighten up the mood.

"Like Sora?"

Axel thought he heard hurt in Roxas's voice for a moment, but he laughed it off. "No, I wouldn't like you as much as if you were like your hyperactive attention deficient twin brother!"

It seemed the whole conversation in the car had been forgotten by both of them, and Roxas had seemed to relax as soon as they had arrived at the redhead's place. They spent a good amount of time trying to take the controller from each other's hand to see who could beat the monsters faster than the other, before eventually looking at the time and deciding it was too late to start a new level. Axel asked Roxas to text him as soon as he got home as he waved him good bye. Roxas realised he was pretty content with his evening after all.

When he got home, he started up his computer, a mechanical gesture he always did when coming back from anywhere. He realised Kairi had posted a picture of him on Facebook. When he opened up the file, he saw that it was the picture she had taken of him and Sora that morning. He was suddenly astonished at how much alike they still looked at almost 16 years old now. They had the exact same brown spiky hair that would always end up looking like a bird's nest. Many details of their faces were similar; the same dimples, the same jaw structure, the almost girly eyelashes. The only difference was the shade of blue of their eyes; while Sora's looked more like blue sky on a sunny day, Roxas's eyes had the colour of sapphire, a shade darker than his brother's softer blue.

Under the picture were a few comments and he scanned through them, not looking for anything particular.

That's when he realised that most comments were directed to Sora and if not, they were talking about 'Sora's brother'. Never 'Roxas'.

Roxas quickly closed the lid of his laptop, hiding away the picture from his view. He rose up, pushing his chair back so fast that it almost fell to the ground. He flung open his closet door and stared at his clothes; he noticed that nothing screamed 'Roxas'. Everything in his closet had a 'Sora' look to it; they were used to shopping together most of the time, and Sora has always commented the clothes Roxas bought, but never before had this one realised that his look was almost identical to Sora's look.

The nagging feeling came back, and Roxas suddenly stopped denying what had been wrong in the past few days, even weeks or months; he was so tired of being Sora's brother in other people's eyes. Sora had always been the popular kid because he was way more sociable than Roxas; he was in the soccer team, girls liked his carefree attitude and his constant smiling, he had decent grades but was a nice kid in class, and even their parents found it easier to communicate with him than with Roxas on certain terms. On the other hand, Roxas had always been the more quiet type; he was a very bright kid and teacher praised his grades, he never really took notice or interest in sporting events and he found it harder to make friends since he liked to keep to himself more than Sora.

But recently, he had become tired of living in his brother's shadow, of being mistaken for him.

He closed his closet door and sighed before sliding down the wall and sitting on the floor. He didn't want to be the center of attention like his brother was, but trying to be different from your twin brother when everybody considered you to be identical was proving harder than it had looked at the beginning.

He ran his hands through his hair and his eyes fell on the clock right next to his bed; 2:34. He had completely forgotten to text Axel. He reached for his cellphone into his jeans pocket and realised he was still wearing Axel's clothes; he had left without changing back into his school uniform. It wasn't the first time this had happened, but tonight, he felt like being in somebody else's clothes was somewhat comforting.

-ROXAS! ARE YOU STILL ALIVE? the text from Axel read.

Roxas found a tiny smile in him and let it out, reading his friend's written outburst. He replied that he had gotten home safely and had simply forgotten. A few minutes later, he got a message filled with a few swear words and a good night. Roxas stayed seated on the floor for a few more minutes before deciding on going to bed. After all, he wouldn't be solving his problem anything at the wee hours of night.

He'd have to do something about it and soon, but he just didn't know how.

XxXxX

The next morning, Roxas found a way to skip breakfast by sleeping in late. When he left his room, his brother was gone with their mother, but his father was still in the kitchen, making lunch. When he noticed Roxas, he offered to cook something for him, but Roxas replied he could do it on his own. After a few minutes of silence, his father spoke up.

"Have you and Sora decided what you wanted to do tomorrow?"

Roxas hadn't completely forgotten about tomorrow, but he hadn't wanted to think about it. Usually, Sora and he would spend the day at the attraction park or whatever else they choose to do, and then they would head off to their restaurant of choice. But the idea of doing the same thing again this year didn't appeal to Roxas, not at all.

"About that... do you think I could skip out on the tradition this year?" Roxas ventured.

For a moment, his father didn't answer, but when he did, his reply surprised Roxas.

"You know, I think you're old enough to know what you want to do for your birthday. If you don't want to spend it the same way, it should not matter as long as you do what you want to do."

The conversation ended on this when the phone rang and his father went to get it. Roxas had then once again faced his reflection in the mirror and had spent quite some time trying to style his hair differently before opting for a cap when all else failed. An hour later, he was driving Roxas to work for what would be a very long evening. After their morning talk, Roxas had decided that he really didn't feel like spending his birthday in a foul mood because of his brother's effect on him, but he had yet to talk about it with said brother. He had told his dad that he would tell Sora himself, seeing as he would probably wonder why Roxas had chosen not to spend their birthday the usual way.

On her dinner break from her job at the Internet café, Kairi showed up at his job at the video store. "What's up with the hat?" she asked.

Roxas laughed nervously. "I tried something that didn't quite work, and I ran out of time to fix my hair again..."

They then talked about the weird customers than they both had seen during the day like usual until Kairi brought up the topic.

"There's something bugging you, isn't there?"

Roxas sighed while replacing a DVD on the shelf. "How can everyone tell that something is bugging me?"

Namine had asked him a similar question during lunch period yesterday, and then Axel had even acted nervous around for some moments when they were at his place last night after their conversation in the car. Was he that readable?

"You don't talk that much, so we just learned to decipher information that you give us without talking" she replied.

"You sound way too philosophical for a Saturday evening, you know?" he said.

She laughed, but he could tell her question still hung up in the air.

"I can't do it anymore."

"What?" she asked.

"I can't be 'Sora's brother' anymore. I wanna be Roxas."

She looked at him, puzzled. "But you are Roxas. Unless there is something that you have been hiding from me for a long time..."

"Stop joking, this isn't funny!" he snapped, making her realise just how serious this issue was.

She smiled, apologizing. "This is really getting to you, is it?"

"Yes. I'm tired of looking in the mirror and seeing him in me. I mean, I don't want to not be his brother anymore; I just want to be able to look at a picture and see the difference in us. I mean, we are so very different and you guys know that... but I wanna be different on the outside too. I can't stand being mistaken for him and people talking about me in reference to him" he explained.

Kairi looked thoughtful for a moment and then she smiled brighter than the first time.

"I think I might have an idea. When are you free?"

Roxas suddenly thought about tomorrow and the idea of spending his birthday differently, and he came to a conclusion.

"I guess I'll be spending my birthday with you then" he replied. "But what exactly are we going to do?"

The girl looked at her watch and realised she had to be back to work in a few minutes. "Just trust me on this Roxas! See you tomorrow, my place, at 1. Okay?"

Roxas barely had the time to reply and she was out the door. He wondered what they would be doing tomorrow and if asking Kairi for help had been a good idea. His cellphone vibrated in his pocket and he took it out, looking at the flashing text icon. He had missed a previous text and a new one had just come in.

Sora: I thought about go-karting tomorrow, how does that sound?

The message was only a few minutes old, but he must have missed it while talking with Kairi. He sent a quick reply to his brother:

Roxas: We'll see. I'll talk to you about it tomorrow.

The other message was, no surprise there, from Axel:

Axel: When can I deliver your b-day gift to you?

The text almost had Roxas blushing. Since when did Axel buy him anything for his birthday? He was used to getting a free meal from him anywhere around his birthday (or whenever Axel owed him something or lost a bet to him), but not anything close to a gift. Maybe his best friend really had been worried about him and had wanted to provide him with something else than food for a change. He didn't know what to think of the situation so he simply wrote that he would call him sometime tomorrow. He quickly got a reply.

Axel: Okay Can't wait to give it to you, hope you'll like it!

"Got a text from your girlfriend or something?" his co-worker asked from right next to him.

Roxas snapped his phone shot and shook his head vigorously.

"N-no! Why would you think that?"

"'Cause you're blushing like a schoolgirl right about now, that's why!" the other boy laughed and walked to another row with a handful of DVDs.

The brunet went back to stacking the DVDs on the shelves and tried hard not to think about what type of gift Axel would have gotten him for his birthday.

XxXxX

Roxas felt like hell the next morning.

As predicted, Sora looked at him with worry when he said he had been thinking about spending his birthday on his own.

"But Rox, we always did spend it together in the past. You know, we don't have to go go-karting if you don't want to. I'm sure we can find something else to do" his twin argued.

Roxas knew this was going to be difficult, but he hadn't thought of plausible arguments. At this very moment, he even thought of backing down from his arrangement with Kairi and going with his brother. However, there was a voice in the back of his mind telling him that this wasn't the way to make things better.

"I just think that, this year, it would be good for us just to spend our birthday separately. And besides, we went out Friday with our friends, so it's not like we haven't done anything together for our birthday, see?" he explained.

"Was it something I said or did I do something wrong?" Sora asked.

"Not at all, it's just that... I have other... plans" the other boy replied.

Sora looked dumbstruck for a moment. "Oh, okay. I guess your mind was already made up then."

Roxas felt even guiltier then before. After all, it wasn't really Sora's fault if Roxas felt like he needed to take some distance. His brother hadn't done and said anything wrong; it was everybody else that had made him feel this way, and also himself for letting this drag out so long. Sora suddenly stood up from his bed and hugged his twin. This surprised Roxas, but he held his brother back.

"We can always do something next weekend, then!" Sora said as he let go.

Roxas nodded and smiled, happy that his brother somewhat understood and let go of the issue. He headed for the door, but was stopped by Sora's final inquiry.

"What are your plans, by the way?"

XxXxX

Shopping had only been part one of Kairi's plan. He found out he could easily adapt to a new style of clothing and that this style suited him way better than his previous one. Kairi had made him try various things until he settled for something totally different from his brother. Somehow, he realised that his new choice of clothing reflected a little bit more of Axel's style; some darker colours, chequered and line patterns, converse shoes and accessories, which he didn't use to wear very often.

A few hours later, as he stared at himself in Kairi's bathroom mirror, this one standing right next to him, he realised that changing his clothing style had been a smaller task than part two of the girl's plan. Now, this would take some getting used to. At first, he had been shocked at the transformation, but the more he looked at himself, the more he appreciated his new look. Kairi had done it all by herself and Roxas was glad he had asked her help for his 'makeover', because that's what it ended up in.

The girl had been so happy about her work that she had taken a few pictures of him while he was picking up his stuff in her bedroom. Before this whole thing started, she had even taken a picture of him, saying that he might want to keep it as a souvenir for later. "I won't post these anywhere, don't worry! I can't wait to see the look of everybody's face tomorrow morning!"

Roxas smiled at her and he suddenly felt a burst of joy and self-accomplishment inside. He had finally taken the step that would definitely differentiate him from his brother. However, he would probably have to explain his reasons to Sora as soon as this one would see him. When he looked at the alarm clock on Kairi's desk, he realised that this might have to wait tomorrow morning. He hadn't noticed that, while they were waiting for the dye to do its magic, time had passed so quickly, nearing 11 by now. He thanked Kairi from the bottom of his heart as she kept looking at him like he was a precious work of art. He left a few moments after, making sure he had everything in hand.

The walk home was longer than the one between his place and Axel's since Kairi lived further. He was able to catch one of the last buses passing on the main street and as he sat down, the window sent him this new image of himself. He still had difficulty believing that he had actually changed so much in the past few hours, and that he had gone through with his project and Kairi's plan. At first, he had firmly opposed to anything too drastic, but if this couldn't be qualified as drastic, then he had forgotten the very definition of the word.

Something vibrated into one of his many bags and he spent a couple of minutes searching before eventually finding his phone. He was instantly impressed by the amount of text messages he had gotten. True he hadn't picked up his phone since he had changed at Kairi's place earlier this afternoon. All his friends had texted him a birthday message, but he suddenly remembered Axel's message from yesterday when he saw the missed calls and messages from his best friend.

Axel: Have you thought about when you'd be free? (2:56 pm)

Axel: Roxie, stop ignoring me and answer! (5:41 pm)

Axel: I just called Sora, he says you're not with him. Call or text please. ( 7:02 pm)

Axel: Call me as soon as you get this (10:37 pm)

Roxas quickly opened up a new message file and started typing. He didn't dare call at that time, but he hoped Axel wouldn't be too mad at him. He was about to click the send button when a flashing low battery icon appeared on his screen.

_Shit, __this is gonna have to wait 'til I get home! I'll write him and an email or see if he's online then._

He got off the bus a few stops later and walked the rest of the way home. All lights were out; he hadn't forgotten to tell his parents he would be home late that evening, so they had probably gone to bed by now. Even his brother's room was dark. He remembered that this one had an early soccer practice tomorrow which would explain why he was already asleep. Roxas entered the house and locked behind him. He climbed the stairs trying to make as little noise as possible as to not wake anyone and went directly into his room.

He closed his bedroom door and he heard some rustling behind him. When he turned around, he almost yelled in fright if it hadn't been for a hand preventing him to do so.

"Don't! It's just me, okay" the intruder whispered.

Roxas instantly recognized Axel's voice and calmed down. He took the hand away from his mouth. "What are you doing in my room? And how did you get in here?"

He couldn't make out Axel's expression in the dark, but he could hear the smile in his voice.

"Well, I got a weird text from you, and couldn't understand a thing. I replied, but when you didn't, I didn't want to wait another 7 hours or so for an answer, so I came by your place instead. I just had to use the ledge of the living room window to get in, just like I've done thousands of time before."

Roxas understood that probably a part of his text had gone through before his phone died, but that he couldn't receive the response from Axel since his battery went dead on him. He sighed and went towards his desk to turn on the lamp on it.

"You know, it could've waited tomorrow. The gift giving, I mean. I was gonna connect via Messenger as soon as I arrived to talk to you."

The lamp gave a soft glow to the room as it turned on and Roxas suddenly heard a thump on the floor. He spun around to see a small carefully wrapped box on the floor and lifted his gaze to first meet Axel's empty hands and then his astonished gaze.

"Ax, what's-"

"What happened to you?" Axel interrupted him.

XxXxX

To say that Axel wasn't having a good day so far was an understatement.

When Roxas had left his place Friday night, he could only sigh in relief. He had realised how hard it became to spend some alone time with Roxas, especially when this one was wearing his clothes. Of course, he would never admit to anyone that he found him completely adorable in his hoodies. And if anyone were to discover it, he would blame all the comments, the nicknames and the anxiety building up inside of him as sexual frustration.

Because, that's what it was of course. He had been sex deprived for so long that even his best friend was making him feel needy. Or so he had thought until a few days ago... when he had been entranced by Roxas eating sea-salt ice-cream while they were watching a movie. Well, Roxas had been watching a movie while Axel had been watching Roxas and thinking very dirty thoughts about his best friend.

So Friday night, he had been trying to completely let go of these weird thoughts inside of him, but the hours had passed without him getting a lot of sleep. When he had left his place on Saturday morning to get to work, he looked like hell. Like every Saturday morning, Namine had passed by his workplace with two large cups of coffee from the coffee joint in the mall and handed one of them to him.

"OMG, you look like you need it more than ever today. What kept you up all night?"

Maybe it had been the very little sleep he had gotten of the thoughts that were still plaguing his mind, but his answer had sounded wrong as soon as it had come out. "Roxas didn't leave that late last night."

Namine had blinked a couple of times before replying. "Okay... well, that would explain some things."

Axel had looked at her quizzically, before realising his mistake. "Fuck, that's not what I meant... I mean, we played... I mean video games and then he left... and I-"

"It was only a joke, Axel."

The redhead stopped abruptly and laughed nervously. "Yeah, pff, I knew it!"

Namine sighed. "No you didn't, imbecile." She took a look around his shop. "No one's around for now, so spill it out."

"Spill what out?" Axel replied, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"A lot of people including Roxas might be totally oblivious to it, but I'm not."

The boy stared down at her and his look became stern. "I hate your guts, girly."

The blond girl smiled. "So when did it start?"

Axel fumed. "I'm not in love with him, okay!"

Namine smiled even wider. "I never assumed you were, did I?"

The redhead hit his head on the counter. "Fuck, and I thought I was being totally careful about everything."

"Oh, but you were" Namine reassured him. "And believe me, at first, I wasn't really sure."

Axel then started to explain how it had all started.

Both boys had known each other for nearly 6 years now. Axel remembered how they had befriended one another at a certain Christmas party. He also recalled that they had met their first girlfriend at the same school dance, but Axel hadn't been able to tolerate Roxas's girlfriend, like he hadn't been able to tolerate all of the following ones; he had felt like they took away his friend from him. Roxas had never once complained about Axel's possessiveness over him, except that one time when Axel had made a public claim at school, but that had been mostly a joke on Axel's part, or so he had thought. That day, Axel realised that he didn't look at girls the same way he used to and that spending his time with Roxas had seemed more important than dating.

A few months ago, the need to be close to Roxas had increased and what he had always seen as casual gestures became tainted with a sexual innuendo; Roxas tackling him to the ground when Axel was beating him in a video game, Roxas putting his feet closer to him claiming they were cold when they watched movies, Roxas eating sea-salt ice-cream, Roxas looking adorable his large clothing that Axel just wanted to take off him...

Axel had tried to put all these thoughts behind him by self-satisfying himself, feeling like some sexual relief might do the trick, but it didn't.

When Roxas had looked at him so confused in the car last night, Axel had felt something stirring inside of him. And then when he had smiled had him while they were playing, and the way he looked so edible in the clothing that was slightly too large on him... that had been the cherry on top. For a while, he had been able to accuse his lack of sexual activities as the cause of this attraction, but he had realised yesterday that his infatuation for his best friend couldn't be considered as purely physical and sexual anymore.

"Have you tried, you know, talking to him about it?" Namine simply said at the end of Axel's confidence.

"Are you fucking out of your mind, girly? I mean, we're talking about Roxas here, introverted and prone to verbal outburst when provoked Roxas! I think that if I ever told him about my 'crush' on him, he would beat the heck out of me just for even mentioning such crush! And THAT wouldn't lead me anywhere, wouldn't it?" Axel exploded.

Namine sighed. "I think you underestimate him. Roxas might be able to understand your feelings and even return them for all you know."

It was Axel's turn to sigh. "But he's not even gay."

"So weren't you a while ago, no?" Namine relied.

The redhead had to agree she had a point there. After all, Axel couldn't consider himself gay. Yeah so what if he had kissed a guy before? It wasn't called experimenting for nothing. But he'd never dated a guy before, and all he knew about gay relationships was what Wikipedia had taught him... and other websites that will not be mentioned here.

"What did you get him for his birthday?"

That brought Axel back to the conversation.

"Nothing, I never got him anything in the past. Why?"

"Well, giving someone a gift on their birthday can be perceived as a sign of affection, Axel. Maybe you should start with that... and then try to see if it gets any reaction from him and let things flow from there. That might work better than being too forward and scaring him away."

And that's how Axel and Namine ended up spending their lunch break gift shopping for Roxas. Namine had been discouraged after a few minutes when Axel couldn't get his mind set on a good gift idea, but they eventually found something right back at Axel's shop when his boss showed him the new watch models they had just received that morning. Axel had asked Namine to wrap it up for him and she had brought back the small box after her shift at work. Axel had wanted to go straight to Roxas's job to give it to him, but Namine had advised him to wait until tomorrow, so he could get his ideas straight before facing Roxas. Axel had texted Roxas to schedule a time for tomorrow instead.

XxXxX

Which leads us to today...

Axel had also talked to Namine about Roxas's recent behaviour yesterday. She had told him that she knew something was up with him, but that she believed he might have been confused about himself, and not angry or mad at Axel about anything. She said he had sent up vibes of 'emoness' as she had called them.

So when Roxas didn't reply to his two first texts, Axel thought that maybe Namine had been wrong. He waited until later to call and still got no answer. He settled on calling Sora; maybe Roxas had forgotten his cellphone back home... and the answer struck a nerve.

"_Nah, Roxas isn't with me. We decided on doing something different and separately this year. I think he needed some time off. I have to say that it surprised me that he wanted to spend his day with Kairi, thought. I didn't __know something was going on between them!"_

Axel had hung up the phone and waited a few minutes before texting Roxas again. He had spent the whole evening waiting for an answer that never came. He texted one last time before calling Namine.

"How could have I not known? I mean, we tell each other everything and I mean, Kairi? She's nice and all but-" he started.

"Axel, shut up for a moment, will ya?" Namine interrupted him. "I doubt something's going on between Roxas and Kairi. She's been all over Hayner from the school's soccer team lately. Stop making up stories. Roxas might have wanted to talk about things with her, with a GIRL, you know, just like you did with me..."

Axel hadn't thought of picturing the situation this way. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "God, I sound like a high school girl, don't I?"

"No, you sound like an insecure guy, which is totally out of character for you, but happens to everyone when they like someone, okay."

The redhead was about to reply when his phone beeped, signalling a new text message. "Hold on, Nam! That might be him!" Axel pushed on a few buttons and read the new entry.

Roxas: So ry xe. E ome fe min.

_What the fuck?_

"Namine, I gotta go."

"Go get him tiger, Oh, but don't do anything foolish, idiot" she replied before handing up.

XxXxX

Which leads us to now...

Axel had climbed into Roxas' bedroom, seeing as all the lights were out in the house. As usual, his best friend had left his window slightly opened, which enable the redhead to pull the opening larger and get in. He heard the bedroom door opened as soon as he closed it back and quickly made his way to his friend to prevent him from alerting the whole nine yards. He then explained himself as Roxas made his way to his desk to probably turn on the light in the bedroom.

But the taller teen hadn't been prepared for what he saw.

Mind you, Axel always thought Roxas had some cute things about him; the way his eyes were darker than his brother's and how they reminded him of sapphires, the way he pouted when he wanted to obtain something, the way his hair always stuck in every direction even when he tried to style them differently. Axel had also always been used to Roxas generic style of random t-shirts and pants that often resembled those of his brother, even though Axel had tried to get him to buy different types of clothing.

The Roxas that now stood in front of him was a completely different version of what he was used to. Instead of his usual generic shoes, pants and t-shirt, he was sporting a brand new pair of black and white converse shoes, a fitted pair of jeans that framed his figure and a black and red stripped hoodie over a white t-shirt. There even was a studded belt and a metal bead necklace accessorising the outfit. But what struck Axel what the new wheat colour of Roxas' hair, as well as the shorter haircut that made his eyes pop out even more than they used to. If Axel had thought Roxas to be cute before, he was totally ravishing by now.

Feeling observed from head to toe, Roxas scratched the back of his head nervously, avoiding Axel's gaze.

"I... I needed a change I guess, and Kairi volunteered to help out."

Axel was a loss of words and had to refrain himself from tackling Roxas on the spot. Trying to regain his composure and collect his thoughts to keep from doing anything stupid as Namine had advised he picked the gift that had fallen on the floor. When he looked back up, he smiled at his friend.

"Well, Roxie, for a change, that sure is one."

Roxas looked back at him. "I know it's kind of... drastic. But hum... what do you think?"

_I think that I want to take you right here on the spot, and forget about all that good advice from Namine. I think that you look stunningly beautiful and that I don't want everybody to look at you the way I look at you now. I think that it will be hard for me to go on and pretend we're just friends when all I'll be thinking will be how to get you alone with me, in a locked room.__ Preferably with the least possible amount of clothing on you. Or even better naked, you know._

"It looks great" was all he could manage without going too far.

Roxas still looked unsure, but to cut the awkwardness of the moment, he motioned towards Axel's hands. "What's this?"

Axel seemed to remember the purpose of his visit and handed the box to Roxas, smiling. "Oh, happy birthday, kiddo! I do believe it'll fit well with that new look of yours."

The now blond unwrapped the present and opened it up, under the careful eye of his best friend. Inside the box laid a men's watch with a black and white chequered wrist band. The hands on the clock looked like two smalls keys and the numbers shinned a bright silver. Roxas took it out of the box and observed the details even more closely.

"Wow, Axel. It's... it's so beautiful."

"Whatcha waiting for? Try it on" the redhead said as he approached and took the watch from the blonde's hands and tied it gently to his wrist. The skin-to-skin contact had Roxas blush, but it went unnoticed to Axel, this one focusing on securing the watch to his friend's wrist while controlling his inner turmoil. "How'd you like it?"

Blue eyes met with vibrant greens ones. The blonde smiled genuinely at the taller boy towering him. " I love it, thank you."

Roxas couldn't have predicted what happened next as Axel's hands cup up his face in a swift motion. He felt soft and warm lips against his own and closed his eyes under the intensity of the feeling he felt coming from his best friend. It took him a few seconds to register what was really happening and he felt his back hit the wall behind him, one of Axel's hands moving away from his face to support himself on the wall. Roxas let out a small squeak of surprise and the redhead took the opportunity to deepen the kiss. A pool of heat formed in the pit of the blonde's stomach and he nearly forgot how to breathe when the lips slowly retracted themselves from his mouth. The hands were instantly off his face and Axel had back away from him.

"Fuck..." was all he heard and then Axel was out the door and out the house a few seconds later.

Roxas brought his fingers to his lips as he trying to feel the warmth that had been there just a moment ago. He suddenly registered what had happened between him and the redhead and the warmth was not only on his lips but covering his face as a deep blush surfaced.

_What was that all about?_

XxXxX

"Good morning, brother! How was your-"

Sora stopped in mid-sentence and it took all the reflexes in his muscles not to drop his plate. That made Roxas think about the fact that not only did he have to get use to his change, but other would react to it in various ways to.

"Holy crap! You look different! Very cool, but different still!"

Roxas let go of the breath he had been holding. Knowing his brother, he thought that Sora would take his physical change as a sign of distancing between them, but he had been wrong; Sora knew him better than that, and he probably understood why Roxas had finally decided to go through with a change, however drastic it was.

They ended up talking about their respective birthday day over breakfast, and trying to calm their mother down as she saw the new look one of her son sported. Their father had been more open-minded about the change, but in the end, their mother had told Roxas that he looked quite good with his new do. Sora had said he couldn't wait to see everybody's reaction at school as their father had drove them like every morning. The brunet twin had eventually noticed the new piece of accessory on his brother's wrist.

"Did you get this with Kairi too?"

It took everything Roxas had in him not to blush when the events of last night came crashing back down on his mind. "N-no! It's a gift from Axel."

"So he did get a hold of you yesterday, after all?"

The blond nodded and rapidly changed topic to avoid getting into details about how Axel had gotten 'a hold of him' last night.

When Roxas finally made it to his locker after thanking everyone for their nice comments about his new look, he opened it and took out the necessary books for this morning's class.

"Did Axel manage to see you last night?"

Roxas jumped out in surprise and dropped his books on the floor. He turned around to face Namine. "We only talked, that's all!" he quickly spilled out.

Namine looked at Roxas puzzled, but brushed it off. "Like the new hairdo by the way. Suits your personality" she said, smiling softly.

Roxas smiled back, nervousness still showing in his features. "Yeah, well, Kairi thought I'd look good in blond and guess she was right."

"Axel also said you'd be cute with blond locks once, if I recall correctly." Namine replied.

"Why does everything had to revolve around Axel, hen?" Roxas let out.

That struck a chord in Namine's mind. "Tell me Rox, did you like Axel's gift?"

Roxas quickly bent down to pick up his book. "I don't know what you're talking about, I mean, he came and we talk and-"

"I meant the watch, Roxas" the blond interrupted.

Roxas blushed while standing back up and laughed to cover his misunderstanding. "Yeah right, the watch. Yeah, yeah. I really like it, I mean, it's great and the colours are cool and-"

"What else did Axel 'give' you exactly for you to not understand me the first time, Roxas?"

On that comment, the blond guy closed his locker and pointed to his watch. "Oh look at the time, don't want to be late for class! See ya!" he finished as he sprinted down the hallway.

_Axel, you dumbass, what have you done?_

XxXxX

Said Axel was currently a nervous wreck also. He had been faced with another sleepless night, trying to figure ways to either avoid Roxas until the end of time, or face him and discuss about what had happened. The first option seemed like the best in his mind, but the least plausible also. He had however managed to avoid said blond for the whole morning until another blonde showed up at his locker at lunchtime.

"Okay, so what exactly didn't you get through your thick skull about not scaring him away?" Namine fumed.

"I might have... accidentally that is... kiss... him?" Axel explained.

"You're such a freaking idiot!"

Axel regained his senses quickly and replied. "I mean, you have to understand. I show up at his place will all the willpower in the world and it turns out mister had to go and get his hair blond without telling me about it, all the while probably not remembering how much I had told him about my obsession for blondes. And he's wearing these clothes I've been trying to get him into for a while and then he smiled up at me with the most beautiful and innocent smile, and I had to refrain myself from doing more than just kissing him, not making out with him mind you which almost happened, on the spot!"

"But you guys didn't actually manage to talk about it afterwards, did you?" Namine asked.

"How could I? He looked so confused and I felt so guilty that I just... fucking left the place" Axel finished, knocking his head on his locker.

The blond girl sighed. "I never thought I would say this but... try to get yourself in detention on Friday."

Axel looked at her, quizzically. "What?"

Namine explained. "Roxas was somehow so distracted this morning that he couldn't focus in maths and the teacher was in a foul mood so he gave him detention. Do something, anything stupid like you're used to, and get yourself a detention as well. Then offer him a ride home or anything so you guys can set things right. God, will I have to do everything for you two guys...?"

She left the redhead standing there as she made her way to the cafeteria before lunch hour was completely over.

XxXxX

Roxas couldn't quite believe it; he had never, ever gotten a detention in his life and it happened that today was the luck day he would see the detention room for the first time. He had been so out of it on Monday that he had managed to find himself here by the end of the week. He handed his slip of paper to the teacher in front of the class and sat down at a desk on the side, feeling smaller than ever. As he opened up his math book to do the exercises he had been too unfocused to work on for the past week, his mind wandered back to a conversation he had with Kairi over break.

"_Well, I have to say that the blonde inspiration came from Axel. He had talked about __it over lunch two weeks ago and I couldn't get my mind off it; I just knew it would look good on you. I didn't know it would have that effect on him thought... I don't know, Roxas. Maybe you'd better ask him about your 'incident' last Sunday... After all, Axel has been looking at your differently recently, like there was something on your face or whatever. Maybe it wasn't something on your face in the end" she had said, smiling knowingly._

What she had been referring to, Roxas had really no clue.

He had been setting his mind on starting his math homework when somebody else walked into the detention room and handed a slip to the supervisor in front.

"Axel, how nice of you to show up. It's been a while, I thought we had gotten the best of you. Guess I was mistaken" the teacher said.

Roxas's hand cringed on his pencil as he tried to focus on his book without looking at the redhead that had taken a seat at the opposite side of the class. The blond thought his nerves would get the best of him when the teacher announced that he had to grab something from his office and that he would be back in a few minutes, expecting both students to be sitting at their respective place when he came back. Roxas felt the urge to run out of the classroom, but his hopes vanished when he saw the door closing behind the teacher. As soon as this last one was out of sight, he heard Axel's chair moving and the tall redhead coming in front of him.

"Can we talk, Rox?"

Roxas didn't look up. Both boys hadn't even talked to each other in the past few days, but it seemed inevitable now that they were alone in this room. "Sure, we can talk, I mean, we're not supposed to in detention, but I guess now that the teacher's gone, nothing stops us from talking, right?" the blond blurted out.

A hand cupped up his chin and forced his gaze up. Roxas flinched away from the touch but looked up. "Like adults or teenagers, or whatever?" Axel said as he gazed into his eyes.

Roxas was at a loss of words. The emerald eyes that held his gaze were filled with a guilt he'd never seen before. To say that the blond hadn't been thinking about what happened last night would be lying. And what Kairi had said to him earlier that day had his mind rolling for the remaining of his classes. First, there had been the daily phone calls; if the redhead didn't call or text him once a day, Roxas had made sure that he was the one doing it. Then there had been the every available free time spent with his best friend and the lack of need of finding a new girlfriend after the last one a year ago (or was that even further away than a year ago?). Roxas had somehow missed all the signs that he had been sending unconsciously... or were they? When Axel had mentioned his liking for blondes, hadn't Roxas felt a pang of jealously inside or even when Axel was spending time talking to his brother and not him? Of course, there had also been that time where Roxas had caught Axel coming out of the shower with only a pair of sweat pants on and he had been somewhat hypnotised by the other's well toned stomach, forcing him to hide a very deep blush before the redhead noticed.

"You start, then" the blond replied.

Axel took a deep breath. "I'm sorry okay. I shouldn't have done that, especially without giving you any warning about it..."

"But...?" Roxas asked.

"But what?" Axel demanded.

"I don't know, your sentence seemed to go on with a but..." the younger teen replied.

"Can I offer you a ride home?" Axel blurted out.

"Axel, I-" the other frowned.

"Please. We'll talk about it then. The teacher's coming back, I can hear him."

Roxas nodded while sighing as Axel quickly ran back to his seat. As predicted, the teacher opened the door a few seconds later and the rest of detention was spent in silence with Roxas having only one question in mind: was he infatuated with his best friend?

The answer seemed so obvious he didn't understand why he hadn't seen it before.

XxXxX

They made it to Axel's car in silence and the whole ride towards Roxas's place was made in silence as well, both of them not knowing how to start the conversation. When the redhead stopped the car in front of the blond's house, they stilled hadn't exchanged a word.

"So..." Axel started.

"So..." Roxas replied.

There was another long silence and then both tried to speak at the same time.

"Rox, you-" Axel started.

"I like you!" Roxas blurted out.

Axel's breath hitched in his throat and he turned to face his best friend.

"What did you say?" he ask, dumbfounded.

"I... I said I think I like you. That weird feeling has been lying there for a while now, but I just couldn't put my finger on it before, and I realised that I liked a lot of things about you and God, when I look at you, I realised I find you so hot and all... and..." the other repeated, his tone getting faster and higher as he continued.

"But you didn't say 'I think' the first time…" the older teen replied.

"Well, if you know it already, why'd you ask me to repeat?" the other said, nervously twisting his hands.

Another hand stopped the fidgeting of his and he inhale quickly. He heard Axel take a deep breath. "How do you want me to resist you, Roxie?"

Roxas lifted his gaze, hearing this last statement.

"You turning blond and surprising me like that? I mean, it's been hard enough on its own for the past few weeks for me not to make a move, spending so much time with you while controlling my impulse to jump on you, and you go and pull a stunt like this on me? And even now, you look so adorably nervous and all!"

Roxas was out of words for a few seconds. "I have that much effect on you?"

Axel smiled at him. "You have no idea, kinky bean."

The blond blushed at the nickname and turned his gaze away. "Well, you have some effect on me too, Ax..."

The gentle hand was back on his chin, securing his gaze into Axel's once again. "Really?" the redhead's asked.

"Really" the blond replied.

"How much?" the other said as he approached his face.

"A lot and I mean, more than I thought you could" the younger teen breathed out, trying to calm his racing heart.

"Good" Axel said while closing the distance between them. "'Cause I like you too, blondie."

And suddenly, it was very clear for Roxas how much he had been missing by waiting this long to stop denying this attraction towards his best friend. The redhead's lips were back on his and the fire started all over again like the last time. Roxas felt a rush of emotion stirring inside of him and he pressed his lips gently back to the other's demanding ones. The hand left his chin to head for the back of his head, fingers drifting into the now short blond locks. The short boy closed his eyes and both of his hands found the back of the redhead's head, finger digging into the luscious spikes too. He heard a click and realised Axel's other hand had unclipped his seatbelt. Roxas felt teeth nibbling his bottom lip and opened up his mouth to deepen the kiss as requested by the redhead's tongue.

The contact between them was broken when Axel pushed his seat backwards and pulled Roxas onto his lap so that the young teen was straddling him on the driver seat. Roxas blushed at their position and Axel starred at him with a smudge look. "You're so sexy I could eat you right up." Axel's lips found their way to Roxas's neck where they left a trail of bites, kisses and licks. Roxas's breathing came out a bit more erratic than before and it became ever more uneven when Axel's hands found their way under the back of his shirt, fingers tracing patterns on the skin now available to them. A moan almost escaped the blond lips but it was caught by the redhead's mouth returning on his and the kisses deepened as their bodies were crushed together. Roxas's arms circled Axel's shoulder as he tried to close as much distance between them as he could, feeling warmth overwhelming his senses.

"Holy crap!"

"Fuck, would you two get a room?"

Roxas suddenly moved away from Axel and hid his head in the redhead's shoulder.

"Thank you very much for ruining the moment, Riku..." Axel said.

Outside the car stood Sora and his best friend, this last one covering the brunet twin's eyes. After a few seconds of awkwardness, they both left under the threat of Axel beating the crap out of Riku if they both didn't go into the house this instant. Axel chuckled slightly and nudged Roxas's head off his shoulder. When sapphire met emerald again, a deep blush covered the blond's face. The slightly reddened and wet lips as well as the hint of lust in the younger teen's eyes made it hard for the other not to ravish him on the spot again. The redhead smiled at him. "Wanna go back to my place so I can kick your ass at _Soul Calibour_?"

The blushing blond smiled back "Yeah right, like YOU are going to kick MY ass. Pfff. You're on, dumbass!"

Axel's lips were back on his neck and they made their way to his ear.

"Well, I wouldn't mind being on you know, but under's fine too, Roxie" the redhead whispered while nibbling Roxas' ear lobe.

"Axel, you perv!"

The game controllers weren't of much use that evening.

XxXxX

_The End_

_There you have it, my first ever Akuroku __ I had this idea of posting this around my birthday as well, when I read another author was posting what she calls a birthday fic everyday for her birthday. Since mine was last Sunday (yes, on Halloween), I finally decided to write it._

_The inspiration for this fic was also a song by Fefe Dobson called As A Blonde._

_Please review__ and you might get another Akuroku from me sooner this way :p_


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